Ordained to “Order” (Administration is also Ministry)

Administration isn’t the most exciting part of ministry. But it’s an important part. United Methodist Elders (that’s what I am) are ordained to Word, Sacrament, Service, and Order. Order is about the “ordering” – or administration – of the church.

One of the reasons I was appointed to High Street (one of many reasons, let’s be honest), is that I have a gift for administration. This isn’t a flashy gift, but it’s an important one for the church. I was asked to help our leadership teams here “clean up” some administrative … issues … from previous years. And I’ve been working with our staff and our lay leadership to do so. I think we’re in pretty good shape now.

Summer is a time of lots of administrative work in the church. Among other things, the Nominations Committee meets to prayerfully consider who is due to “roll off” various committees and who might be best to fill empty positions. We’re not looking for warm bodies; we truly want the best and right people to fulfill the missions and ministries of High Street UMC. We have to do this important work early to meet Church Council and Charge Conference deadlines.

Another activity we’ve been working on is cleaning the membership rolls. One of the requirements of the United Methodist Book of Discipline is that each church or congregation keep its membership rolls up to date. They are to conduct an annual audit to make certain that everyone on the rolls are active, participating members of the church; and to gracefully make arrangements to remove those who aren’t.

We started this process last year because the membership rolls of High Street UMC hadn’t been tended to regularly or recently. Part of this probably relates to COVID: High Street UMC “shut down” to in person worship for a short time, and many people got out of the habit of coming to worship. It’s also true that people move away, decide to attend other churches, die, or otherwise make decisions to stop attending a given church, but don’t tell their “old” church. And despite our weekly requests, many people don’t sign in. We understand all of these things.

We’re sent the “Year 2” letters required by the Book of Discipline for those we contacted last year. Persons who are listed as members, constituents, or “active” attenders, but for whom we have records of no contact (attendance or giving) for the past five years (i.e., pre-COVID) were sent a letter both years. They were given the opportunity to tell us if our records aren’t correct, or even if they are, whether they want to renew their relationship with the church. Or they can confirm that they have chosen another path. If we don’t hear from them, their names will be removed from the membership rolls by vote of Church Council and then the Charge Conference this year (this is the UMC process).

Administration is an important part of ministry. We appreciate everything and everyone who helps with this process.